government for like a week. >> are you worried aboutyourtaxesgoingup? >> i actually hopethefiscalcliffhappens.let's push it off the cliff and do it. >> do you know who john boehner is? >> no. >> the tan guy. he cries a lot? >> he cries a lot? poor thing. i would, too, if he was the speaker of the house. >> do you know who john boehner is? >> i have seen him. we use the same tanning bed. >> the fiscal cliff. are you afraid? >> very worried, indeed. >> i'm scared of heights, so. >> are you nervous? >> i think you are making me nervous. ♪ feels just like i'm falling for the first time ♪ >> just the day before the painful spending cuts take place, the bush tax cuts expire. that is why they call it the fiscal cliff. president obama wants to let the taxes go up on the so called rich generating $80 billion in refs. revenue. 8 days of federal spending. less than 1% of the $16 trillion debt. >> do you know how much debt america is in right now 12346789. >> $14 billion or something like that. >> do you know what the national debt is right now? >> no idea. >> i'm going to say 30 something t

itthefiscalcliff. presidentobama wants to letthetaxesgoup on the so called rich generating $80 billion in refs. revenue. 8 days of federal spending. less than 1% of the $16 trillion debt. >> do you know how much debt america is in right now 12346789. >> $14 billion or something like that. >> do you know what the national debt is right now? >> no idea. >> i'm going to say 30 something trillion. >> 16 trillion. you just doubled it. >> the fiscal cliff is definitely around the corner. and here to try to break it down so everyone understands it is fox news contributor steven crowder who joins us from dallas, texas. hello, steven. >> hello judge or as we say in french "judge jeanine." i don't know if that is french. >> judge jeanine: i don't know either. >> actually no, i am french canadian. >> judge jeanine: can you you tell us what this fiscal cliff is? >> well, listen, i don't know about the package you just ran. i did go out and interview people on the street for the fiscal cliff. i apparently had it wrong. i thought we had a spending problem in this country. apparently that is not the

highertaxesandthefiscalcliffthingand they are not spending so much. if there is a sign next week we could have a deal, perhaps we will see moreshipping. there is going to be a lot of sales after christmas. >>heather: people get their gift cards. and we see that. that will be an important indication. not all hope is lost but we are cutting back and not as much spending as we hopeed. >> not all hope is lost. >>gregg: i am single-handedly holding up the american economy. one man stimulus. >>heather: you can catch brand da every saturday morning at 10:00 a.m. right here. >>gregg: it legal immigrants could get a free pass in the united states as immigration and customs enforcement unveil a new border patrol policy to bypass certain kinds of offenders. dominic is live in our west coast newsroom with more. >>reporter: yes, this policy snuck through hoping people would not notice and now illegal immigrant if they commit a petty crime they are not deported. the aim of homeland security and customs is to consequence trait resources on hunting down the dangerous illegal immigrants, instead,

in a sense,thefiscalcliffisin a sense artificial, if he has the power toraisetaxesnextyear for six months and then get down to serious negotiations after the congress-- >> and should republicans be willing to raise rates? say we lost the election, now what, we're just going to, we have to do it. >> well, i think if the president had put something that was like $1 of tax increases for every $4 that he was cutting, then there could be an argument for doing that, but he's not there. >> paul: all right, mary, thank you. still ahead, four state department officials were removed from their post after a r r r r r r r >> a scathing report this week blames systemic failures in leadership and management deficiencies at the state department for inadequate security at the u.s. consulate in benghazi before the september 11th attack that killed ambassador chris stevens and three other americans. in testimony before congress this week, two top advisors to secretary of state hillary clinton vowed to do better and to improve security at u.s. diplomatic posts around the world. clinton herself was s

an economic crisis from thisso-calledfiscalcliff. somesay no deal is what the country needs to cut spending and raise taxes. what will happen? national correspondent live in washington with the details. good morning, steve. >> good morning, eric. the two sides in the fiscal cliff debate had their say before heading home for christmas, but no deal of course. after house speaker john boehner called off his push for a plan b last week saying the ball is now in the democrats' court. there has been no movement toward any deal. democrats want tax hikes for the wealthy. republicans want spending cuts. and some in the gop say the president doesn't want to avoid the fiscal cliff. >> when i listen to the president, i think the president is eager to go over the cliff for political purposes. i think he sees a political victory at the bottom of the cliff. he gets all of this additional tax revenue for new programs and he gets to cut the military which democrats have been calling for for years and he gets to blame republicans for it. >> president obama for his part said he is optimistic a deal c

afiscalcrisiscollapsed a so-called plan b after some conservatives balked at p provisions tolettaxratesrise on those making over a million dollars. is there a plan c or over the fiscal cliff. dan henninger, editorial board member. mary anastasia o'grady and jason riley. where do we stand right now with the collapse of plan b? >> well, it's no fun being john boehner right now. he's still in a tight spot and the concern that the republicans have is that obama's panel strength and as we go over the cliff and tax rates go up. but i really think the buck stops with the president here. when you go into the negotiating sessions, paul and you're expected to make concessions, but you're expect today get something in return and boehner made a major concession on rights and the president is giving him nothing in return to take that to his caucus and say, this is what happened in the horse trading. it's all or nothing, obama seems determined to humiliate the opposition. >> paul: boehner made two concessions, first 800 billion on the table in revenue and don't raise rates when the president s

to go overthefiscalcliff, andwas it easier for them to go ahead and just letthetaxreductionsexpire and let the sequester take place? >> and by that are you saying you think you wanted the president to go over the fiscal cliff? >> harry reid. >> and if so, do the republicans get the blame, and do you think the president wants to go over the fiscal cliff? >> you know, republicans and democrats are going to get the blame for this. everybody is going to get the blame because it's a spending problem that has been decades in the making. when you look at the trajectory of how many has been spent in this country, you can go back 50, 60 years and see the articulation of where those dollars have been spent, see how that spending escalated coming through the '70s, back down a little bit with reagan, but not enough, and then, of course, when you reduce the taxes, you need to be reducing that spending, so the blame, there's -- there is plenty of blame to go around. i am really concerned that come january 1 you're going to see the taxes go up on people. you are going to see the obama care

this town right now,thefiscalcliff. >>right. >> haven't you betrayed some of the voters who supported you in the election by changing your positions on who should get a tax increase and by including social security benefits now in this mix? and more broadly, there seems to be a deepening sense that negotiations aren't going very well right now. can you give us a candid update? are we likely to go over the cliff? >> well, first of all, there's no reason why we should. remember what i said during the campaign. i thought that it was important for us to reduce our deficit in a balanced and responsible way. i said it was important for us to make sure that millionaires and billionaires paid their fair share. i said that we were going to have to make some tough cuts, some tough decisions on the spending side, but what i wouldn't do was hurt vulnerable families only to pay for a tax cut for somebody like me. their task is going to be to sift through everything i did that is out there and even take a look at some bad ideas. the come up but a concrete set of recommendations in a month. i would